


Petrichor

by thatsnotmyname32



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, BAMF Haruno Sakura, F/M, Gen, Grief, Obito Redemption, Obito learns the truth, Sakura Obito friendship, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, florist Sakura, other tags too, that's a new tag I just decided on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:41:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22124239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsnotmyname32/pseuds/thatsnotmyname32
Summary: In the midst of their fight with Kaguya, Sakura Naruto and Sasuke find themselves hurled back to the night Naruto was born. Morning sees Sakura wake as the only survivor of Team 7. What will she do now? And can she help a grieving Hokage deal with the loss of his wife? MinaSaku, T rated.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Obito, Haruno Sakura/Namikaze Minato, Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Obito, Minor Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke - Relationship
Comments: 36
Kudos: 323





	1. Wake

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! So, I’ve had no desire to write anything Naruto, it’s been all Sailor Moon for me lately. But… I was reading a fic the other day, and it’s rekindled my Naruto muse. Maybe. We’ll see if it lasts. In any case, I had a whole bunch done for this idea, but then I got rid of it and redid it all just now. After this, I’m gonna go check out my other Naruto fics, see if I can’t do something with them as well…  
> Anyway, in case there’s someone out there who doesn’t know, petrichor is what you smell when it rains. Or when someone uses a sprinkler. I love that smell, it’s in the top two of my favourite smells, alongside baking bread. <3 I called it this because of the fact that Sakura’s element types are earth and water.  
> This idea is based kinda on all those little one shots out there, where Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura end up right at the night Naruto was born. They all have all three of them dying, but this is based on one of them surviving, and what they do afterwards. It was originally gonna be ObiSaku, but then I changed it to MinaSaku.

**Wake**

She drifted into her awareness, her mind creeping into coherence slowly, _slowly_. Her thoughts were hazy and dim, clouded with the coma-like sleep that came with chakra exhaustion. Her head shifted slightly to the side, then back again, as she worked to wake physically as well as mentally. Fingers and toes twitched, the sound of a door opening and closing as a nurse checking on her left to inform someone that she seemed to be waking. Eyes flickered open briefly, before closing again.

Where was she? The last thing she remembered… What _was_ the last thing she could recall? Head shaking slightly, she focused on trying to remember, and slowly, _slowly_ , memories began to trickle in. There was a fight… No, more than one fight. The first one was… was… against a goddess? How would _that_ even work? The last… It was against a demon.

No, not a demon. _He_ would never forgive her if she continued to call it that. It? He? A bijuu, in any case.

Some more memories came to her, including her name, which she hadn’t realised she’d forgotten. Sakura. Haruno Sakura. She and two others… They’d been fighting, then there’d been a hole… That hole had led to a different battleground, one that was different in so many ways, yet was connected to the other one in yet others. Her team mates… Uzumaki Naruto. Uchiha Sasuke. They were… they were…

She gasped, eyes wide, jolting up into a sitting position.

Naruto! Sasuke! Where were they? Sakura’s eyes darted around the room, noting the bareness, the sterility of the space. A hospital room, her mind supplied her. She was in a hospital. Konoha’s hospital, judging by the design of the room, the _feel_ of the chakra running through the place. That feeling had always soothed her before. Now, it irritated the hell out of her. But why? …Ah. Because the wards used were done by different people than she was used to. Of course.

Sakura pushed the sheet off, swinging her legs over to the side of the bed. She wiggled her toes, staring down at her feet. There was still feeling in them. She raised a leg up, one at a time. No muscle atrophy, so it wasn’t _too_ long that she’s been in here. Good. Tentatively she slid off the bed, landing softly and solidly on her feet. For all of two seconds before her legs buckled and she grasped desperately at the bed in order not to tumble to the ground.

Why did…? Ah, a weakness in the joints, easily fixed, so she did so. Once it was done Sakura stood easily, if a little shakily, on her own two legs at last. But then she sat back on the bed, and thought. She thought and thought, until she could remember what happened…

Otsutsuki Kaguya. She, Naruto, and Sasuke were fighting her. Kakashi and Obito were off to one side. She… Sakura remembered punching that bitch in the face, then a bright light, blackness, another bright light, and then… They were in front of… Kurama.

Naruto’d started freaking out at the sight, going on about how was this possible? And where were his parents? Sasuke had immediately honed in on one spot, locating someone… Obito. Then he’d told Naruto he was going to deal with him, before taking off. Naruto’d yelled and called him a bastard, before asking Sakura to help him find his parents. They’d found them fighting off Kurama. Naruto’d eagerly joined in the fray, briefly startling his parents. Naruto was, after all, still ‘lit up’ in his partnership with Kurama.

The fighting had been intense, but eventually Kushina had managed to tie Kurama down with her chains. The Yondaime had wanted to start the shiki fujin, but Naruto had stopped him. There’d been arguing, but eventually, the Hokage had started it. A heavily wounded Sasuke had shown up shortly after, an equally injured Obito slung over his shoulder. Sakura had been checking over Kushina when he arrived, and they were all distracted at his appearance. Minato and Kushina especially at the sight of Sasuke’s burden.

Kurama had taken the opportunity to attack.

A giant claw had headed straight for where Sakura and Kushina were. Minato had rushed to his wife, Naruto had rushed to Sakura, but in the end, neither of them got there in time. Sasuke had, however. He pushed Sakura out of the way, ending up getting… getting…

Sakura released a sob, remembering the look in Sasuke’s eyes. He’d looked so _surprised_ by his actions. Did this mean that he’d… that he’d…? She clasped her hand to her mouth as she grieved.

Kushina had also… Naruto had screamed in denial, Minato had frozen for a moment, before continuing forward to his wife. Sakura had raised a hand to Sasuke’s face, instinctively glowing green, but even as she’d stared at him, and he at her, the light had disappeared from his eyes. She closed her eyes as a fresh wave of grief overwhelmed her.

It was chaos after that. Naruto had _insisted_ that _he_ be the one to seal Kurama. Even though the Hokage had wanted to join his wife, Naruto had told him that he _needed_ to be there for his son. So Minato had allowed it, walking him through it, even as Sakura had yelled at him to stop being such an idiot. Kurama’s last attack had taken her then, and Sakura, already low on chakra from fighting a war, a goddess, and now a bijuu, had collapsed…

And that was the last thing she remembered.

Sakura was overwhelmed in her grief. Sasuke, and undoubtedly Naruto, were gone. Dead. Never coming back. She was here, in the past, all on her own. What was she supposed to do? She hugged her arms close to her, losing herself in her tears, wallowing in her pain. But she couldn’t stay here and cry forever. If only for the fact that the door opened and four people walked in. One of them gasped and came over to her, sitting next to her and wrapping an arm around her. Cool, soothing chakra was sent to her, and slowly Sakura calmed.

She wiped away her tears and looked up. Before her were an ANBU, the Hokage, and a medic. Next to her, still rubbing her back soothingly, was a nurse. She breathed as deeply as she could, trying to catch her breath so that she could speak. She looked into the Hokage’s eyes, and saw her own grief mirrored there. And fatigue. He was _tired_ , she could tell.

“H-Hokage-sama,” she managed to choke out.

“Sakura-san,” he returned, and with that simple statement, Sakura understood why her memories had initially been jumbled.

Someone had used a mind-scan on her. A Yamanaka? Ibiki? Maybe… Inoichi? Either way, they would probably still have a lot of questions for her, and as she stared at Namikaze Minato, she knew that she was in for a _long_ debriefing.


	2. Speak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the midst of their fight with Kaguya, Sakura Naruto and Sasuke find themselves hurled back to the night Naruto was born. Morning sees Sakura wake as the only survivor of Team 7. What will she do now? And can she help a grieving Hokage deal with the loss of his wife? MinaSaku, T rated.

**Speak**

Sakura watched dispassionately as the medic-nin and the nurse left, the former having completed a quick check-up on her, before nodding to the Hokage and leaving him, the ANBU, and Sakura alone. The door shut, she stared at it in an almost zombie-like state, her mind and emotions still numb from her tumultuous revelations. It took Minato a few tries to get her attention, but eventually she paid attention when he spoke.

“Why did you come here?”

Sakura’s gaze fluttered slowly to his. “It was an accident,” she eventually said, her voice quiet.

Minato exhaled deeply, eyeing her thoughtfully, before he nodded. “I had a Yamanaka scan you,” he told her, confirming her thought from before. “It was only a basic scan, so I need you to give me details, explain what he _did_ see. For instance, why you’re a shinobi of Konoha, yet you aren’t on the official register. As well as the fact that one of your… team mates… is an Uchiha, yet there aren’t any of that clan unaccounted for. As for your other team mate…”

Sakura looked away from him then, tears welling in her eyes briefly before she blinked them away. “My name is Haruno Sakura,” she said woodenly. “Registration number, 012601. Rank, chuunin. I graduated at the age of twelve, alongside my classmates, in the twelfth year of the second reign of the Sandaime Hokage.”

That got a reaction. In the corner of her eye, Sakura saw Minato stiffen slightly, before he motioned for her to continue after she’d paused too long.

“I was placed on a team with the highest ranking graduate, Uchiha Sasuke, and the lowest scoring graduate, Uzumaki Naruto,” she said, ignoring how the man before her utterly froze at Naruto’s name. “We were placed under the tutelage of a jounin sensei, one Hatake Kakashi.”

There was silence, and it dragged on for quite a bit, the uncomfortableness of it not fazing the ANBU in the room in the slightest, of course. Finally, Minato stated, “Kakashi didn’t come back with you.”

Sakura shook her head. “He wasn’t near us when it happened,” she said. “I… I’m not even sure what happened, or _how_ … Do you… Can you tell me what it was that Yamanaka-san saw? How much?”

Minato levelled a stare at her a moment, before he sighed. “He saw your name, your rank and affiliation,” was his reply, “and he also saw you fighting a white haired woman. He saw a lot of jumbled images that he figured are from your childhood, as well as some more recent. For you, that is. And you and your team fighting Orochimaru-sama? Though he wasn’t sure why.”

Sakura closed her eyes briefly, remembering the incredibly one sided fight in the Forest of Death. “Orochimaru defected from Konoha after Sandaime-sama discovered he was performing unethical experiments, mostly on ‘forgotten’ Konoha citizens.”

_Now_ there was a visible reaction from the ANBU, even if it was only a slight shift in the position he was standing in. From Minato, there was a sense of anger and disbelief, like it was something unthinkable. But then his posture relaxed slightly as he seemed to put it aside for the moment.

“I think you’re going to need to write up a full report,” he said. “Everything you know, leaving nothing out.”

Sakura only nodded.

There was silence again, then she asked, “Can I ask… Where they are? Sasuke and Naruto, I mean.”

A beat, then Minato said, “In a secure location, where they won’t be disturbed just yet. I… I’m honestly not sure what to do with their… er, what to do with them.”

“A-and, Obito…?”

Minato’s eyes simultaneously hardened and drooped in grief. “Ah, yes, Obito,” he said a little darkly. “He’s in secure lock-up, with his chakra sealed and his eyes… _eye…_ also sealed. There are only a few who know about him, just as there are only a few who really know about you, also. What I can’t understand is why…? _Why_ did he attack Konoha?”

“From what I heard before we came back,” Sakura said, “he was captured and brainwashed by Uchiha Madara, who wasn’t dead at the time. I _think_ he is by now, though. Obito saw someone he loved die, and apparently that tipped him over into madness.”

“Rin,” Minato breathed.

“I think that’s who it was,” Sakura agreed. “I heard Obito mention, in my time, something about how Madara caused it? I think. I figure that he must have arranged it somehow, to get Obito fully on his side.”

“And coming here? Attacking Konoha and Kushina?”

“The Kyuubi,” Sakura said. “Gathering the bijuu was one of the goals that Obito and Zetsu had.”

A sharp intake of breath. “To what end?”

“To reconstruct the juubi, and bring a farce of peace to the world,” Sakura said. “Though in the end, both Madara and Obito were misled by Zetsu, who was doing all this to revive Otsutsuki Kaguya.”

“Who is…?” Minato started to say, then sighed. “Never mind. Perhaps I should just wait to read your report on this. In the mean time, what do I need to know, _now_ , to keep the village safe? What’s the most important thing to worry about?”

Sakura thought a moment. “There’s Zetsu,” she said. “But an ordinary sensor can’t detect him, and he can infiltrate even the most secure locations. Then there’s Orochimaru, as I mentioned. Also, Shimura Danzou, the village elder. You need to look into his activities, because he’s running a secret militant organisation as his own personal army.”

Minato nodded. “I’ll look into it,” he said. “In the meantime, you’ll be staying here, until I figure out what to do with you. An ANBU will be outside your door at all times. If you need anything, let him know.”

He left then, the ANBU following, and Sakura was left on her own.

OoOoO

After leaving Sakura in her hospital room, and the ANBU who’d accompanied him outside her door, Minato headed straight to T&I, bypassing the main reception, going straight to Inoichi’s office. Once there, he utilised a sealed door that only he, Inoichi, and Ibiki could access, revealing a set of stairs that led downwards. At the end of the stairs was a long corridor, leading directly under the Hokage Tower.

Once he reached his destination, he found Ibiki going over some seals that hovered over a sleeping figure. The man briefly grunted at his Hokage’s entrance, far too engrossed in his work to really greet him. Inoichi on the other hand…

“Well?” the Yamanaka asked without preamble. “How did it go? Did she tell you the truth?”

“She did,” Minato said. “I told her you didn’t see much, let her fill in the blanks. She’s genuine, though grieving also. She’s… _mourning_ them.”

Inoichi nodded solemnly in understanding at that, remembering what he’d seen in Sakura’s memories. He changed the subject. “How’s little Naruto doing?” he asked.

Minato smiled wanly. “He’s fine,” he replied. “I’ll be picking him up after we’re done here.”

Ibiki stepped back then, obviously finished with what he was doing. “Hokage-sama,” he properly greeted now. “Are you ready?”

Minato stared down at Obito’s sleeping form, pushing aside all the emotions swirling inside of him. “Wake him,” he said, mentally preparing himself for the interrogation to come.


	3. Breathe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the midst of their fight with Kaguya, Sakura Naruto and Sasuke find themselves hurled back to the night Naruto was born. Morning sees Sakura wake as the only survivor of Team 7. What will she do now? And can she help a grieving Hokage deal with the loss of his wife? MinaSaku, T rated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Profile name changed! You may have noticed. Anyway, this chapter's already up on fanfiction, now I'm catching up.  
> EDIT: Proper chapter three is now up.

Sakura stared out the window, listless. After her 'interrogation' by the Yondaime, she'd allowed her control to slip, and had given in to her grief. She could feel the despair rise up to try to overwhelm her, and she was quite frankly not all that interested in stopping it. Why would she? Her team mates were dead, she was stuck in the past where all her friends were either babies, not born yet, or didn't know her, and she had the feeling that she was a sort of prisoner, no matter the fact that the medic in charge of her case had told her she could come and go from her room, as long as she stayed on the floor of the hospital she was on.

As long as…

_As long as._

Blinking briefly, she leaned her head against the cool of the glass, just staring out at what she could see of the village. It was raining lightly, but that wasn't stopping the reconstruction she could see. Not that she was paying it any real mind, but it had brought up images of the village reconstruction after Pein had decimated it.

Her eyes blurred briefly and she closed them, letting a couple of tears fall as she took in a deep breath. She'd been going over her memories, noting the inconsistencies… The Hokage had told her that they hadn't probed too deeply into her mind, and she was starting to doubt that. If her suspicions were accurate, then they probably knew _everything…_

Not that it mattered.

She inhaled, taking in a deep breath as a wave of self pity threatened to overwhelm her. Tsunade-shishou would blow a gasket if she ever saw her in this state, and Ino-pig would try to throttle the depression out of her. They weren't here of course, so Sakura continued to wallow in her misery. And why shouldn't she? She'd lost _everything_ because of their unexpected trip back here.

Opening her eyes again, she stared down at the streets of Konoha. Despite the recent attack, it was bustling with life. The village would recover, she knew this, had grown up in the aftermath of that fact. For these people, though, it would be different, because they still had their beloved Yondaime. So the Sandaime wouldn't be stepping up, wouldn't be so soft-hearted as to just _let_ Orochimaru escape, would notice the missing children, track them back to Danzou and…

…and…

And what? Sakura had no idea what type of person Namikaze Minato was beyond the legend the village had concocted over the years. Sure, Kakashi-sensei had said he was a great man, and Jiraiya-sama had, and Naruto… But they were all blinded by their ideals of him, as a sensei, student, and father respectively. They might be right about him, but how would she know? Time would tell.

In the meantime, Sakura would just sit here and wallow.

Time passed as she sat there, a nurse visiting once or twice, not that she paid them any mind. She hardly resisted when she was led back to her bed, tucked back in and food placed in front of her. What was the point in eating? In doing anything? Yet she mechanically went through the motions, swallowing down the water, chewing her food almost robotically. Once that was done, she closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall into a broken sleep.

Dreams chased her, terrible dreams of blood, chakra, and red moons. Of red eyes, purple eyes, and a fox illuminated in the night. She would wake every now and then, her terrors chasing her into the waking world, before she would drift off once more, only to have the cycle repeat itself. Once, she'd woken clawing at her throat, screams unuttered, another, her cries had had two nurses come running, resorting to chakra to calm her down. Eventually she fell into a fitful sleep that was uninterrupted until she was jolting out of bed, falling to the floor in an attempt to escape the horror that chased her.

Escaping the grinning face of a mad goddess.

"Bad dreams?" a voice asked, startling her, and she tried to scramble up from the floor, stance defensive and alert as she could considering she'd just woken up.

The face she saw brought grief rushing back up, and she choked out, "Inoichi-oji!"

He pulled her to her feet, and Sakura couldn't help it, she launched herself at him, sobbing into his arms. He held her close, shushing her and rubbing her back, letting her cry all over him, for which she was grateful. Her body wracked with sobs, she clung to the man that had been like an uncle to her, her best friend's father, whose death she hadn't been able to mourn yet with all that had happened. That he was here, now, _alive_ , brought all that rushing back to her.

"Oji-san, ojisan, ojisan!" she sobbed as he led her back to the bed.

He hushed her, still holding her close, until she felt that she'd cried her last tear, for now at least. Reluctantly she pulled away from him. "I'm sorry," she whispered, a little hoarse from crying.

"It's fine," he told her. "I understand that you… you've been through a lot."

Sakura nodded. "You saw it all, didn't you?" she asked, looking up at him, forestalling any denial by saying, "Ino's my best friend, we've trained together. I know the symptoms and after effects of a full mind-scan."

Inoichi sighed. "Hokage-sama won't like that you figured it out," he said. "Though I guess I'm not surprised, considering what I saw. You really pushed my daughter out of your mind at twelve?"

Sakura nodded, a small smile briefly appearing before it vanished. "Ino-pig's no slouch when it comes to your clan jutsu," she said, and she saw a bit of pride flash across his face before it vanished.

"Ino- _pig_?" he asked with a grin.

Sakura pointed to her forehead and defended, "Billboard brow."

Inoichi understood completely.

"So why are you here?" Sakura asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Hokage-sama wants me to give you a psyche evaluation," he told her. "He also wants my opinion on whether or not you're a threat to the village, intentionally or otherwise, and if you're stable enough to be released from the hospital."

"Under guard of course," Sakura said waspishly, a smidgen of her temper shining through for but a moment.

"You _will_ be watched by ANBU," Inoichi didn't deny. "But you should know that's standard procedure."

Sakura nodded. "Minimum three months, except in special circumstances," she said. "So, what are you going to tell him?"

Inoichi observed her carefully, thinking, she recognised. He was considering what he'd say, and she felt a brief flutter of hope that she could _get out of this place_. It was hypocritical of her, but she didn't want to stay cooped up in the hospital. It would drive her even crazier than she probably already was.

"I think," Inoichi said, "that I will recommend that you be released, with conditions. I'll want to see you at _le_ _a_ _st_ three times a week for a full therapy session, for one."

"Three times?" she whined a bit, and he smiled.

"Just at first," he told her. "If you make enough progress, I can cut it back a bit."

Sakura sighed and closed her eyes. "That would be acceptable," she said, then opened her eyes and looked at him. "Anything else?"

"I'll work it out with the Hokage," he said, then stood. "Get some sleep, make sure you eat when they bring food to you. I'll see you later."

He left her then, and Sakura collapsed backward onto the bed, her grief and depression welling up in her once again.


	4. Watch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the midst of their fight with Kaguya, Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke find themselves hurled back to the night Naruto was born. Morning sees Sakura wake as the only survivor of Team 7. What will she do now? And can she help a grieving Hokage deal with the loss of his wife? MinaSaku, T rated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so I'm an absolute IDIOT. I didn't even notice, but I completely missed the third chapter of this. So what you guys have been reading as the third chapter, was actually the fourth chapter. (bangs head against wall) Oh well, now it's fixed.  
> So... GO BACK AND READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER! And sorry for all this. (whups)

_**Watch** _

He had forms in front of him, ready to sign. But his mind was not on infrastructure, or the cost of rebuilding some warehouse the kyuubi had stepped on. Instead, his mind was on the two people whom he was keeping secret from all but a select few. Obito, and Sakura. Not even Kakashi knew that his dead team mate was alive and back in Konoha, albeit in the most secure location in the village, sealed to the point of barely registering any of his chakra.

He was still 'visiting' him at the memorial…

Obito. Minato's eyes closed briefly, a mix of grief, anger, and disbelief. How could his happy, idealistic, loyal to his village student turn into… this? He shook his head, eyes opening as he stared blankly once again at the forms in front of him. He couldn't allow himself to think of Obito as he was. He'd attacked the village, Kushina had _died_ because of him. He didn't think there was any way that he could _ever_ forgive him for any of this.

Even if he _had_ been brainwashed.

Minato sighed as he thought over everything that Inoichi had relayed to him from Sakura's mind, as well as the report she'd written that was about the fourth ninja war. Uchiha Madara, the _real_ one, had been the one to cause this. Him, and that creature, whatever he was, that was called Zetsu. So much of this, he didn't understand. He wasn't an overly theological man, though he believed in the existence of the kami. But this Kaguya, who called herself a goddess…

Pushing that thought aside, he tried again to concentrate on the paperwork in front of him, but it was no use. So instead, he created a kage bushin to deal with it, and hiraishined out to the top of the Kage mountain. Looking out over the village from this vantage point… sometimes, it was the only way he could _breathe_.

It had been almost two weeks now, and he still missed her with every fibre of his being. It was only the thought of Naruto that kept him going, his and Kushina's son. His infant child needed constant care and attention, and whenever he couldn't be with him himself, Minato left his son in the capable care of his godmother, Mikoto. She'd been more than willing, despite having an almost three month old of her own to look after as well.

Minato sighed and closed his eyes, reaching out with his senses for the tiny, but rapidly growing chakra signature of his son. Being both half Uzumaki, as well as the jinchuuriki for the kyuubi, Naruto had a discernible chakra signature, even if it was much weaker than a civilian born Academy initiate at this point. He found him, right there with Mikoto, and Fugaku as well, it seemed.

He pulled his senses back slowly, the chakra of the village washing over him, and this was how he noticed a particular signature, one that was bright and sharp, like flowers with sharp thorns. It was her, Sakura. His senses told him that she was walking along the street that led to the marketplace. She'd been released from the hospital a few days ago, and had already had her first therapy session with Inoichi.

Without thinking, he flashed to the top of a building near where she was. Looking down, he saw her walking along, and he frowned. The sight of her often stirred a sense of irrational resentment in him. After all, if she and her team hadn't come back, then he wouldn't be here without Kushina. He wouldn't be spending his days forcing back his grief, and Naruto…

…Naruto would be alone.

He sighed, frustrated with himself. It wasn't her fault, not really. Without her and her team there, his son would have been alone, raised as a pariah of the village. Minato wanted to lash out at certain people at that thought sometimes, and he had to force himself to remember that that wasn't going to happen now. Not this time.

He followed Sakura as she walked along, staying on the roof and observing her. He saw his ANBU already watching her, and that they also saw him. When she reached the marketplace, he leapt down from the roof, but still kept to the shadows. He watched as she bought plums, apples, some vegetables, and a large chunk of beef, noting when she also bought a pack of dango.

When she was done, she headed back in the direction she'd come from, in his direction. As she passed him, he saw her eyes flicker to him, and knew that she had seen him. And yet, he stayed where he was. Once she was gone, he hiraishined back up to the Hokage mountain, only then noting his accelerated heart rate.

He _really_ needed to get this anxiety of his under control! Closing his eyes, Minato breathed deeply, calming himself. It wasn't helping him any, and would only hinder when he needed to properly meet with her to discuss matters pertaining to the attack, the future, and her team mates. Which would be tomorrow, he remembered.

His clone dispelled then, and he knew that his sensei was back. He hiraishined back to his office to face a frowning Jiraiya, with arms crossed as he gave him a judgemental look.

"A bushin, really?" his sensei asked.

Minato shrugged as he sat back in his chair and picked up the papers his bushin had dropped when it dispelled. "I needed to get some air for a moment," he said without remorse as he signed his name on the form, before putting it on the 'done' pile and pulling out another. "You're back quickly, sensei."

"Well, it didn't take as long to track down my informant as I thought it would," Jiraiya said. "You were right, you know."

"It's been known to happen," Minato said as he signed yet another form. "What was I right about?"

"The rogue ANBU being led by a certain elder," Jiraiya said, and Minato stopped what he was doing, sitting up straighter. "Where did you get this information?"

Minato held up a finger, then stood, activating all kinds of privacy seals on the office. Some had already been here, some he'd added after taking office. And more, he'd added in the past several days. Maybe he was being overly paranoid, but after everything he'd learned about the future… Well, let's just say he didn't care too much about what anyone might think in light of that.

"What I'm about to tell you, only three others beside myself know about," Minato said. "Only Inoichi, Ibiki, and one of my ANBU."

"Kakashi?" Jiraiya asked, but Minato shook his head.

"Not even him," he said, then proceeded to tell his sensei everything.

To say that the Toad Sannin was shocked would be an understatement. "And you know for a fact that this isn't all an elaborate ruse?" he asked.

"Inoichi's search was thorough," Minato said. "She's really from the future."

He watched as his sensei absorbed all of that. "This is quite unbelievable," he said. "Yet you say that the Yamanaka confirmed this?"

Minato nodded. "I want you to check out the seal that Obito has on his heart," he said. "I've already had a look at it, and it does seem to be a control seal, as Haruno says. But a second opinion in this matter would be helpful."

Jiraiya nodded. "When do you want me to look at it?" he asked.

"Tonight," Minato said. "Can you meet me at my place after eleven? I'll take you to him."

Jiraiya nodded, and Minato released the seals on the office. Then his sensei left, and he returned to his never-ending Hokage paperwork.


End file.
